*The Canadian Music Centre is an accessible venue through a street level entrance to the right of the main entrance. The CMC has gender neutral washrooms.

Chemical synthesis takes simpler elements and combines them into bigger compounds. The elements form new bonds and combine into more complicated, yet more stable arrangements releasing a massive amount of energy. A small spark in oxygen and hydrogen can lead to a fireball of newly created water vapor.

Similarly, composers work with inventing simple material and bringing them together, placing them with or against each other into larger coherent shapes. Between the invention of musical elements, and their restriction to containable forms –a construction and destruction of musical matter– the necessary friction is generated to spark the creation. The material pushes on its boundaries to allow for the fullest possible development, but the restrictions provide the framework with which the music can be supported and understood.

These works by John Cage, Jason Doell, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Tristan Perich, reveal how compositional, contrapuntal, formal, or timbral limitations can be powerful generative forces for musical creation. The harpsichord is itself an instrument of limited expression, yet it still has the potential for new creation and new innovation. Combine it with new elements and with a bit of inspiration, it can spark new developments for it and its contemporary musical presence.

About Wesley Shen: Wesley Shen is a Toronto-born pianist and harpsichordist specializing in contemporary and new music. Having completed studies at the University of Toronto, he continued to work as a freelance artist in Toronto, in various solo chamber and orchestral settings, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New Music Concerts and Soundstreams. He is a steadfast supporter and promoter of new music, working alongside many composers to bring new works to life. He is a regular member of the Toy Piano Composers Ensemble, as well as the Bicycle Opera Project, and has appeared often with various other contemporary ensembles in Toronto. He is currently studying a Masters of Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Goska Isphording, specializing in contemporary harpsichord. He hopes to continue to promote this instrument in a contemporary setting, commissioning and performing new and innovative works, and establishing the harpsichord as a relevant contemporary medium.

About the Harpsichord series: The image of the harpsichord harkens back to an era of traditional sounds and old sensibilities, yet it has the potential to gain a greater relevancy and wider use as a contemporary music instrument. Its ancient design of wood and iron can blend with our mechanized and digitized world yet also provide a well-needed humanity through intimacy, warmth and flexibility. These concerts, featuring new and recent works by Canadian composers, reveal some of the new sounds and possibilities that the harpsichord can bring to our time, invite us to interact with its rich wealth of capabilities, and redefine its contemporary identity.